THE ANNEX

And now for something completely Jacobean from noir-master James (Painting in the Dark, 2001, etc.): an updating of Thomas Middleton’s blood-soaked 1623 romance The Changeling. Pretty Joanna Beattie (read: Beatrice-Joanna), just past 20 and about to become the trophy wife of Miro Vermont (Alsemero), an architect twice her age and with twice her sophistication, hasn’t that much of a past, but what she has comes back to haunt her when her former boyfriend Alan Pirie (Alonzo) is released from prison and comes to call. Despite misgivings about placing herself in debt to him, she asks Miro’s chauffeur Florian (De Flores) to get rid of Alan. After he does, he demands her continued sexual compliance, even on her wedding day, which is further tarnished by the appearance of Thommy Pirie (Tomazo de Piracquo), demanding to know where his brother is. Jo turns once again to Florian, who turns once again to murder, setting it up to incriminate Miro, the man he’s cuckolded. A distraught Jo, hiding from her husband and her wedding guests, leaves the way clear for her best friend Dee (Diaphanta) to seduce Miro and point him toward proof of Jo’s dalliance with Florian, leading to two horrific confrontations—between Dee and Jo and between Miro, Florian, and Jo—leaving only one survivor to cruise out of Miro’s driveway in the Lexus while the house burns to the ground.

Searing stuff, so sexually appalling it could drive a nympho to abstinence. What on earth will they think of next?